Technology

AG to App Developers: Store Minimum of User Info

by Aarti Shahani
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January 14, 2013 — 2:21 PM

There's mixed reaction to a new report from California Attorney General Kamala Harris on protecting the privacy of mobile app users. Last week, Harris advised developers to limit how much user data they store -- such as full names and credit card numbers.

Morgan Reed with the Association for Competitive Technology, a Washington DC-based developers group, welcomes the checklist as long as it isn't binding.

"Developers often say, 'well, I feel like I'm being privacy conscious,' Reed says. "As long as you're not looking at it as a list for the law, I think it's something that's actually very good for developers to think about. What am I doing? Am I collecting the photos, am I collecting the contacts list?"

Parker Higgins of the Electronic Frontier Foundation says the report shows Attorney General Harris is serious about enforcing the Online Privacy Protection Act, a state law previously applied only to websites.

"Until recently, it wasn't clear that that even applied on the mobile space," Higgins says.

Advertisers criticized Harris's recommendations, saying they will chill innovation and conflict with standards that industry players are developing on their own.